


Four Paws

by SailorChibi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Marriage, Married Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Married Couple, Moving In Together, Moving Out, Pet Adoption, Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug) is secretly a softie at heart, Post Reveal, Supportive Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug), adrien agreste adopts a cat, adrien agreste deserves to be happy, aged-up adrien agreste, aged-up marinette dupain-cheng, plagg (Miraculous Ladybug) is grumpy, post identity reveal, they are both eighteen in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21527167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes.... a cat? Marinette and Adrien are moving in together. Naturally, there is only one thing on Adrien's to-do list.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 56
Kudos: 757





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a commission from the delightful Rosie, who basically wanted scores of domestic Adrienette fluff with cats. Uh, how do I say hell yes?

The morning of their moving day, Marinette's ladybug luck was in full form: the sun rose into a cloudless blue sky. The temperature was warm, with just enough of a breeze to avoid making it hot. It was going to be a beautiful day. Marinette stood on her balcony and gazed out over the city - her city. No, _their_ city. A small smile crossed her face as she leaned against the railing. If she squinted hard enough, she could just make out the familiar shape of a black cat making victory loops around the city to burn off some energy. Tempting though it was to go join him, Marinette instead turned and went back inside.

She surveyed the boxes with pursed lips. Planning a wedding and packing up her room and finding an apartment _and_ graduating from lycée all at once had been exhausting, but Marinette wouldn't have changed anything. Her parents kept asking her if she was sure. Was she sure she wanted to get married at eighteen? Was she sure that she didn't want to go through university first? Was she sure that she didn't want to live with Adrien for a little while first? Was she sure that she wasn't moving too fast? Was she sure that she really wanted to do this?

The answer was yes, at least to that last one. Because she was Ladybug, Marinette didn't always get what she wanted. She'd had to sacrifice a lot in the name of Paris, and honestly, she had never minded having to do so. But in this, she was determined to be selfish. Exactly one week ago, two weeks after Marinette's eighteenth birthday, she and Adrien had been wed in a small ceremony attended by Marinette's parents and their closest friends. Gabriel, furious that his son was defying him, had chosen not to attend, a fact that Adrien acknowledged with resignation or bitterness depending on the day.

Today was the first of the month and they were finally moving in together. An excited smile spread across her face and she gave a quiet giggle, sliding down the ladder from her bed. As strange as it would be to no longer live under her parent's roof, she couldn't wait until Tikki and Plagg were able to fly around without worrying about being seen. The thought of leaving for patrols with Chat and then returning home with him, instead of the two of them having to go their separate ways, made her so happy that she felt like she could fly without the help of her yoyo. And of course, she couldn't wait to go to sleep and wake up in Adrien's arms every night and every morning.

"If you smile any wider, you're going to hurt yourself," Tikki said, flying up behind Marinette.

Marinette giggled again. "I can't help it. I'm just so happy, Tikki!" She pressed her hands to her aching cheeks, but that didn't help. Her smile only broadened when she felt the rings on her finger against her skin. Adrien had had her engagement ring custom-made. It was a white gold band with a princess cut diamond (because of course the dork would go for a princess cut) surrounded by miniature, alternating sapphires and emeralds. Her wedding ring was simpler, a plain white gold band with four diamonds. There was a little cat stenciled on the inside of the band.

"I'm glad you're happy," Tikki said, her eyes twinkling. "But you need to hurry up! Everyone is going to be here soon and you promised Alya that you would be ready."

"I'm ready," Marinette said. "I just have to throw the last few things into a box." 

"Well, it's already past 8am, so..."

"It's already past 8am?!" Marinette squealed and started to rush around, dumping the last of her clothing, make-up, and other things into a tote. Packing was so much harder than she had anticipated it would be, and she was dreading the thought of having to _un_ pack everything over the next few days. Not just her things, but Adrien's stuff as well as all the things they'd bought for their new apartment. Neither of them had dishes or towels or anything of that stuff, so they'd been doing a lot of shopping.

"Marinette!" Alya's voice called just as Marinette was putting on the last lid. Tikki dove towards Marinette's purse, phasing inside just as the trap door unlatched and Alya poked her head up.

"Hey! I'm ready!" Marinette said, grunting as she tried to make the lid fit. It stubbornly refused to close.

Alya laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. Here, let me help before you break something." She came up into the room and walked over, lifting the lid off. She spent a moment reorganizing the mess inside the tote before putting the lid back on. This time, it snapped into place easily.

“What would I do without you?” Marinette asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“Who knows? Probably end up constantly late, for one thing,” Alya said with a smirk. “Alix, Kim, Nathaniel, Max, Rose, Juleka, Mylène and Ivan are downstairs. We’re packing up your stuff first and then the boys are gonna head over to help Adrien while we take your stuff to the apartment.”

“I’m so grateful you guys had time to help me,” Marinette said. 

“Just remember, we accept payment in pizza,” Alya said. She stood up, dusting off her hands. “Let’s get started.”

Marinette obligingly grabbed a couple of boxes and carefully went downstairs, passing her friends on the way by. Too winded to stop to chat, she gave them all smiles and continued on down to where Alix’s car was parked outside the bakery. She put the first couple of boxes into the backseat and paused to wipe her forehead. Being Ladybug gave her increased strength even in her civilian form, but she’d underestimated just how heavy two large boxes filled with nothing but books could really be.

One by one, the rest of her boxes were brought down from her bedroom and out to the car. Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about most of her furniture: she and Adrien had gone to a furniture store and picked out a new bed, because Marinette’s wasn’t big enough for both of them (they’d learned that the hard way) and Adrien didn’t want any of his old furniture in their new apartment, and things like a sofa, table and chairs. The moving company was supposed to be delivering their new furniture later.

Between Alix’s car, Juleka’s car and Alya’s mom’s car, Alya was able to squeeze everything in – though it was a tight fit. As the boys left for Adrien’s house in Nathaniel’s car, Marinette, looking critically at the overflowing cars, realized she probably should’ve been more selective in what she brought with her. The dozen totes crammed with sewing supplies and fabric had probably been a little overkill. Oh well. Too late now!

“Can I just say that I am infinitely grateful your new apartment is in a building with an elevator?” Juleka said, breathing heavily as she and Rose set down a tub. 

Marinette gave a guilty smile. “Perks of dating a model, I guess. Adrien fell in love with the building and I wasn’t going to tell him no. Oh, careful!” She grabbed for Rose when Rose took a step back and tripped over a dress form. 

“Oops, thanks!” Rose giggled, regaining her footing. “I’m so happy for you, Marinette.”

“Thanks Rose,” Marinette said, touched.

“I’m just glad that the days of you and Adrien quietly pining over each other are long gone. He finally put a ring on it,” Alix said, smirking.

“Oh please, Alix. They weren’t quiet about it,” Alya said, giggling as she came out with Mylène. “If I had a euro for every minute I spent listening to Marinette whine about how Adrien would never see her as anything more than a friend, I’d be a rich woman.”

Marinette flushed. “Shut up.”

“To be fair,” Mylène said, “for a while there, even I was getting sick of hearing Adrien call you just a friend. I’m so glad he saw sense!” 

“Though you never did tell me exactly what happened,” Alya said, narrowing her eyes. Marinette hastily pasted on an innocent expression. Truth be told, she couldn’t tell Alya the truth. All Alya knew was that there had been a very confusing, depressing, painful few weeks when they were fifteen wherein Marinette and Adrien avoided each other like the plague. Then, like magic, one morning Marinette had walked in and said good morning to Adrien, and things had rapidly progressed from there.

What Alya _didn’t_ know was that Ladybug and Chat Noir had been accidentally revealed to each other after a very close call. Hawkmoth had nearly found out who they were. That particular battle had knocked them both for a loop, and it had taken them several days to find their footing and get used to the new, unmasked reality. They had both agreed to temporarily set their feelings aside so that their partnership wouldn’t be affected.

Yeah, that agreement had lasted about two days until Ladybug jumped her partner. Three years later… she looked down at the rings on her finger and smiled smugly.

“All you need to know is that I jumped Adrien and _made_ him see sense,” she said, wiggling her fingers to show off said rings. Her friends exploded with laughter. Marinette laughed too, picking up the dress form that Rose had nearly tripped over and sliding it into the car. Then she went in to say goodbye to her parents.

“Oh, Marinette, we’re going to miss you,” Sabine said, hugging her tightly.

“I’m only a few minutes down the street, Maman. Adrien and I will be here all the time,” Marinette said. It was hard knowing she wouldn’t be living with her parents anymore. But the excitement bubbling in her stomach helped to take the sting off.

“I know, but it’s not the same,” Sabine said, sniffing.

“Ah, she’ll be okay,” Tom said, wrapping both his wife and daughter up in a hug. “Our son-in-law will take good care of her.” But he also looked a little misty-eyed.

“It’ll probably be the other way around, with me taking care of him,” Marinette corrected. “Promise me you’ll come see the apartment on Monday, okay? Adrien and I have plans to spend all day tomorrow unpacking, so things should be somewhat organized by then. I hope.”

“Of course we will,” Tom said. “Here.” He scooped up two large boxes and pressed them into Marinette’s arms. She didn’t need to ask what the boxes contained; the delicious smell of pastries wafting up was all the explanation she needed. Still, she looked at her papa curiously.

“Two boxes?” she asked.

“One for you and your friends for now, and one for you and Adrien later. You’ll be too exhausted to do much tonight,” Tom told her. 

“Thanks Papa. I love you both.” She kissed her parents on their cheeks and then hurried out the door before her maman could start weeping. That would just make Marinette cry, and today wasn’t a day where she wanted to be sad. She climbed into Alya’s car, holding the boxes on her knee. Alya carefully pulled away from the sidewalk and that was it. She was officially moved out.

“Hard to say goodbye?” Alya asked, glancing over at her.

“Not as hard as I thought. Maman and Papa are upset, but I know they’ll be okay. We don’t actually see other much. They’re so busy in the bakery, and I spend most of my time with Adrien or at my internship or with you…” Or running around saving Paris from a psychopath. “In fact, they may actually get to see me more now that I have to go back there to get my treats.” She grinned and patted the boxes.

“Treats which you plan to share with your loyal, hardworking friends, right?” Alya said.

“Of course! Papa gave me a box just for that,” Marinette said. She leaned her head back against the seat and sighed. “The other one is for me and Adrien. He thought we’d be too tired tonight to do very much.”

Alya snickered. “You might not do much tonight,” she drawled. “But I know one thing you’ll be doing tomorrow!”

“What?” Marinette said, half-expecting something dirty, but instead Alya just laughed harder and gave Marinette a knowing look.

“You’ll be at the shelter. Adrien’s wanted a kitten for as long as we’ve known him. Now that you guys have your own place, there is _no way_ you’re not getting a cat.”

Marinette opened her mouth, and then closed it. Her eyes widened as she realized Alya was right, and suddenly she knew where Adrien would want to be first thing tomorrow morning. “Well, shit.”


	2. Chapter 2

Their first morning in the apartment dawned cloudy and grey, not that either Marinette or Adrien were awake to see it. Marinette didn’t want up until she felt the bed shifting behind her several hours later, and she pried open one eye to see Adrien sleepily stumbling in the direction of the bathroom. As the door shut behind him, she fumbled around for her phone to see that it was just after noon.

“Ugh, it’s too early,” she mumbled, dropping her phone. She and Adrien hadn’t gone to bed until almost 3am. There was just _so much_ to do, and both of them kept finding ‘just one last thing’ they wanted to do before retiring. It had taken Tikki metaphorically putting her foot down to get them both to stop, or otherwise they probably would’ve gone all night.

The bathroom door opened again, and Adrien ambled out, yawning. “I didn’t know moving could be so tiring,” he sighed, crawling back into bed and wrapping Marinette up in a hug. She happily cuddled into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Well,” she said optimistically, “we got a lot of the hard stuff done yesterday. So, all we have to do today is go get some groceries and maybe unpack a few of the most important boxes… maybe hook up the television and our gaming consoles…” She trailed off.

And waited.

Sure enough, Adrien nuzzled her shoulder. “Marinette, my beautiful, amazing, gorgeous, wonderful lady – ”

“Just spit it out, Kitty,” Marinette said, rolling her eyes. She was glad she was facing away from him so that he couldn’t see the slight blush that formed on her cheeks at his effusive compliments. If he did, he’d keep up with them until she was so flustered, she’d agree to anything to make him stop.

“We have our own place now and they allow pets here so can we please get a cat?” Adrien said in a rush.

There it was. Marinette sighed. “Adrien, we literally _just_ moved in. Don’t you think we should wait a few days before we get a cat?”

“We could,” Adrien said. He shifted, propping himself up and leaning over to look at her. Before she could look away, he pasted on the most woebegone kitty eyes she’d ever seen. In a very sad voice, he added, “I’ve never had a pet before. I was just really excited to be able to share that with you, my lovely wife.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Marinette said, planting her hand against his face and shoving him back. “It is _way too early_ for me to deal with that level of feels, you stupid cat. Fine. We can go to the shelter and get a cat. Another cat! What even is my life?” She shook her head.

Behind Marinette’s hand, Adrien squealed. “You mean it?”

“Yes, I mean it,” Marinette said. She had pretty much resigned herself to it yesterday after Alya pointed it out but had been hoping against hope that Adrien wouldn’t bring it up quite this soon.

Then again, she couldn’t really blame him. The older Adrien got, the more it seemed like Gabriel was trying to tighten the reigns instead of recognizing that he needed to give his (adult!) son some space. This was the first time in Adrien’s life where Gabriel had absolutely zero say in what Adrien did. Marinette supposed that she should be glad that all Adrien wanted was a cat: there were a lot worse things that an overly controlled adult could do or buy.

“Thank you, Bugaboo,” Adrien said softly, taking her hand and pulling it off his face. He lovingly kissed the back of her hand, looking at her with such tender affection that she wanted to scream.

Married or not, she didn’t think Adrien would ever stop affecting her this way.

“You’re welcome,” she said, proud when she didn’t stutter. “Let’s get up and get dressed, and we can have breakfast on the way there.”

Adrien’s eyes lit up. “Okay!” He sprang out of bed like an excited child on Christmas morning, rushing over to his suitcase. Marinette sat up slower, running her hands through her hair and looking around for their kwamis. She finally spotted them curled up between the two pillows in an adorable black-and-red heap. Seemed like she and Adrien weren’t the only ones who were happy to be finally be living together.

“Tikki, Plagg, wake up. We’re going to get a cat,” Marinette said.

Plagg pried one green eye open to glare at her. Marinette smirked back and got up, moving over to the last tote she had packed yesterday. She pried off the top and peered inside, grabbing the jeans, blue top and long pink cardigan on top. After getting dressed, she pulled her hair up into a messy bun and went into the bathroom to do what she needed to do.

Tikki flew in a moment later, yawning widely. “Good morning, Marinette.”

“Morning, Tikki. Where’s Plagg?” Marinette asked, leaning towards the mirror to put on some blush. She was too tired to put on all her make-up, but she needed at least enough to keep from looking dead.

“Trying to convince Adrien he doesn’t need a cat,” Tikki said, flying over and landing on Marinette’s shoulder.

“I thought Plagg would be thrilled to get a cat. Being that, you know, that he is a cat. Kind of,” Marinette said.

Tikki snickered. “He says he doesn’t like cats, but really he just doesn’t want to share the attention. Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s been looking forward to having you and Adrien all to himself.”

“He does realize you live here too, right?” Marinette said, amused.

“I don’t count,” Tikki said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, I promise to pay tons of attention to you and Plagg. You don’t mind a cat, do you, Tikki?” Marinette asked, realizing they hadn’t asked their kwamis. And that wasn’t really fair, considering that this was Tikki’s and Plagg’s home too.

“Of course not. I like cats. They’re usually much more well behaved than Plagg,” Tikki said, and Marinette giggled as she finished up with her make-up and left.

Adrien was waiting by the door, a sulking Plagg in his jean pocket. Marinette looped her purse over her shoulder and allowing Tikki to climb into it before she clasped it shut. Then she leaned forward, putting her face near Plagg’s, and gently scratched the top of Plagg’s head – right at the base of his ears, where both Plagg and Chat Noir loved it most. Plagg made a valiant effort not to purr, but within seconds that little rumble Marinette loved so much was filling the air even as he pouted at her.

“It’s okay, Plagg. You’ll always be my favorite kitty kwami,” Marinette cooed.

“I’m the _only_ kitty kwami,” Plagg said, but he still lifted his head and allowed Marinette to scratch his chin.

“That just makes you more special to us,” Marinette said, winking up at Adrien when Plagg’s eyes were shut.

“Fine,” Plagg grumbled. “I guess you can get a cat.”

“Thank you,” Marinette said, giving him one last scratch before she straightened up. She took Adrien’s hand, lacing their fingers together, and pulled him out the door.

The shelter was only a ten minute walk away – naturally, Adrien had mapped out the best route – but they stopped at a little café on the way there for coffee, breakfast sandwiches, a cookie and a piece of cheese, the latter of which Marinette slipped into her purse and Adrien into his pocket. All four of them well fed, they continued on their way to the shelter.

“Good morning,” the front desk attendant said brightly when they walked in. Her nametag read Vivienne.

“Hi. We’re to look at adopting a cat,” Adrien said, beaming back.

Vivienne’s eyes widened slightly, which meant she’d probably recognized Adrien, but she maintained her composure and smiled shakily back. “Certainly. Our cats are kept in rooms A, B, and C. You’re welcome to go in and interact with any cat that you like. If you need help, you know where I am.”

“Thanks,” Marinette said, right before she was literally dragged down the hall by her overly excited husband. She caught a glimpse of Vivienne grabbing a cell phone right before Adrien tugged her around the corner, and figured that within half an hour the news that Adrien Agreste was adopting a cat would be all over social media. Oh well. Maybe it would help to bring some good attention to the shelter.

“Oh,” Adrien breathed as soon as they walked into the first room. Marinette closed the door behind them and watched, amused, as he sank to his knees and held his hands out. He was promptly swarmed by mewing cats, all of them trying to get close to him.

“Remember, we’re only taking one home,” she told him, taking out her phone and grabbing a couple shots of him. Nino was going to die when he saw this.

“I remember,” Adrien said, his eyes sparkling as he bent his head and nuzzled a small, light grey cat. That gave a white cat the chance to clamber up onto Adrien’s shoulders. Adrien chuckled, straightening up slowly and lifting a hand to scratch the white cat’s ears.

“Sure you do,” Marinette muttered. Who was she kidding? At some point, she and Adrien were going to have a house with three kids and a dozen cats. But looking at him right now, she found it hard to mind. There was so much joy in his face as he tried to pet two dozen cats all at once, his fingers scratching at ears and heads and chins. The sound of purring reverberated in her ears as she turned away to peer at the cats who weren’t fighting for attention.

Her attention was immediately caught by a couple of small ginger cats. The cage door was open, but both were huddled at the back. Marinette smiled and stepped towards the cage, peering in at them. They were a darker orange in color on top, with paler orange bellies and paws. One blinked at her with bright blue eyes, whereas the other had green. The sticker on the side of the cage marked their names as Fred and George.

“Guess that means you’re the mischief makers, huh?” Marinette said, softening her voice. She held out a hand and gently crooked her fingers.

The bolder of the two cats immediately came closer to sniff at her fingers, then, apparently deeming her safe, rubbed against her hand. Charmed, Marinette lightly scratched its chin. The cat began to purr softly, greedily pushing his head harder. That seemed to give his brother some courage, and in short order Marinette had both hands in the cage scratching away.

“They’re so cute!” Tikki said, sounding delighted as she popped out of the purse to fly up by Marinette’s shoulder.

“Tikki, make sure no one sees you!” Marinette said, glancing at the door. The attendant hadn’t followed them in, but she knew that they might not be alone for long.

“But I want to see!” Tikki whined.

“I want to see too,” Adrien said from right behind her, and Marinette startled. Tikki flew back down into her purse, but poked her head out. Marinette noticed that Plagg had poked his head out too.

“I think they’re twins,” she said, carefully wrapping her fingers around the green-eyed cat. She lifted him out and turned to Adrien, noticing the way his face lit up when he saw the ginger color of the cat. She handed it over and then turned to pick up the blue-eyed one.

[](https://ibb.co/ncWgpxG)

“They’re adorable,” Adrien breathed, holding his cat up towards his face and rubbing his cheek against him. The cat purred louder Marinette turned to them and smiled.

“We don’t have to make a decision right away,” she pointed out, but as she watched the cat stretch out a paw and lightly touch Adrien’s nose, she was pretty sure that they already had.

“I like them,” Tikki piped up.

“Plagg, what do you think?” Adrien asked, looking down at his kwami.

“If you must get a cat, I guess they’ll do,” Plagg said begrudgingly, but Marinette didn’t miss the curiosity gleaming in his eyes as he watched the two ginger cats.

“I just want to take them all home,” Adrien sighed.

“ _Chaton_ , I love you, but no,” Marinette said, steeling herself against his cute pout. They had the money, but not the space or the time. “Tell you what. I think we should both come back and volunteer here, okay? Then you can be with the kitties as much as you want. But I really do think two cats is enough for now.”

“I guess you’re right,” Adrien said. “I like the idea of volunteering here. I never had time for that in the past.” He bent down and nuzzled against the blue-eyed cat in Marinette’s arms. “I love that one of them has green eyes and the other has blue eyes. They were meant for us!”

Vivienne tapped on the door before Marinette could respond, then opened it a crack. “Hi! Looks like you’re making out pretty well! You found the twins.”

“So they are twins?” Marinette said, delighted.

“Yup. Our vet estimates that they’re about eighteen months old, give or take,” Vivienne said, slipping into the room. “They both love attention, as you’ve noticed. We’ve had some interest in them, but we were really hoping that we’d find someone who would take both of them. They do so well together that we don’t want them to be separated if at all possible…” She looked at them expectantly.

“Of course we’re taking both!” Adrien said at once, like he was offended by the very idea that they might only take one, and Vivienne lit up.

“Excellent! I can get you started on the paperwork, unless you like to look around a bit more,” she said.

Catching Adrien’s eyes wandering towards a lovely grey cat, Marinette hastily shook her head. “You know what, I think we’re good,” she said. “Just these two, and _that’s it_ , right?”

Adrien just grinned sheepishly and winked at her. “For _meow_ , My Lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The artwork in this chapter was created by the incredibly talented [Carol](https://carolgpr.tumblr.com/), and was commissioned by the same person who commissioned this story. I think it looks absolutely amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
